Afghanistan: how Bush got the best victory money could buy

November 20 2002By Mike AllenWashington

Tandberg

A new book says President George Bush's advisers had grave doubts about the early course of the war in Afghanistan and suggests that the defeat of the Taliban was due largely to millions of dollars the CIA gave Afghan warlords.

Bush at War, by Washington Post assistant managing editor Bob Woodward, draws on four hours of interviews with Mr Bush and quotes 15,000 words from National Security Council and other White House meetings that led to military action in Afghanistan and the decision to confront Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

In detailing tensions within Mr Bush's war cabinet, the book describes Secretary of State Colin Powell as frequently at odds with Vice-President Dick Cheney and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and struggling to establish a relationship with Mr Bush.

The book reports that despite their outward optimism Mr Bush's advisers had deep doubts about their strategy of bombing the Taliban while relying on ground forces from the Northern Alliance, the ragtag, factionalised opposition. At one point, the Pentagon developed plans to send in 50,000 US troops.

Mr Bush, according to the book, hated what he saw as "hand-wringing" by his aides, but even he expressed doubts about the strategy, roaring at one point that he was "concerned about the fact that things aren't moving". ");document.write("

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At a climactic meeting in the Situation Room two weeks into the campaign, Mr Bush went around the table, demanding that his aides affirm their support for the strategy. They pledged allegiance to his plan, and his call for alternatives was met with a unanimous "no".

"Don't let the press panic us," Mr Bush said.

According to Bush at War, the CIA spent $US70 million ($A124 million) in cash on the ground in Afghanistan, a figure that also included money for setting up field hospitals.